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Ismene's penultimate bomb destroys the wraith!
Three of the five are now destroyed, leaving the Mosswater Marauder and the Splatter Man somewhere in this dungeon. What do you do now? Descend in the oubliette?
We will begin on March 2, 2026.
Welcome! This should be a wild ride. Expectations:
6) This scenario has a lot of contingent bonuses based on prior scenarios and boons. Please fill out the following (considering only the PC in this adventure, of course):
This is an Outpost IX scenario, and signups will begin on February 9 (early access February 6 for Gameday GMs). Please sign in here on or after those dates with the following:
This is not officially first-come first-served. I may generally follow that principle unless 1) the player for whom I am running this game is a bit late to sign up (in which case I will save them a spot) or 2) the first 6 signups would lead to a party composition that I would judge to have a very high probability of an unsatisfactory experience for the players. This is a tough one, and it bends some of the rules. At this level you should have the Prestige to overcome most adverse outcomes of a scenario, but fair warning: this scenario is a doozy.
Quinn lands a powerful blow, and Ismene's bomb hits dead center. Ectoplasmic wisps start to evaporate from the wraith. The spirit attacks in a mix of fury and fear, hitting Quinn again.
Quinn, Marill, and Ismene are up!
Marill, unfortunately, misses again.
The Lopper seethes with rage. With the priest and the fire-bomber out of reach, he swings his axe at the warrior in front of him.
Quinn dodges. Round 3
Round 4
Round 2
Round 3
Tiff hits! Marill misses, but retains his spell to try again. Theodore readies to Channel, and Ismene augments her mental prowess. Seeing that Quinn and Luna are bleeding, but Tiff is not, the Loppper seeks to change that.
Party up! Round 2
Round 3
The Lopper swings his axe at Luna.
Quinn tears into the wraith.
The spirit flinches as the bomb explodes. The insane rage on his face cannot mask the fear in his ghostly eyes.
The wraith flies at Quinn!
The Lopper swings his ghostly axe at Quinn's neck. There is pain, and blood - but the blood then turns into smoke and flows into the Lopper. On the spectral form, the burns from Ismene's bomb and Theodore's spell start to heal.
Party up!
Round 2
Several iron doors line the walls of this large, empty room. In the middle of the room, a hinged ten-foot-square metal grating lies over a dark pit in the floor. A thick rope has been tied to the grating and dangles into the pit below. With a bloodcurdling shriek, a spectral figure emerges from the pit! Its legs are twisted as if broken; its arms are unnaturally long. It carries what appears to be an oversized hatchet, though all of it is translucent and insubstantial. Initiative:
Knowledge (Religion):
From descriptions, you recognize this is The Lopper. He has become a wraith. Wraiths can vary in their abilities, but generally can drain life with a touch. They are incorporeal, can sense the presence of living creatures (even invisible ones), are powerless in sunlight, and can create spawn by killing the living. Animals are normally extremely averse to attacking such beings - but Luna should have no trouble. Round 1
Quinn and Theodore are now back to full, and Tiff is at 13/23. Do you heal further, turn back, press on to the Oubliette, or do something else? @Marill - I think you should have more spells known, one of which could be Cure Light Wounds if you wished... your profile just shows 2 1st-level spells known and you should have 4 as a 3rd-level Bard (plus any that you might have added from Secrets of the Grave).
Tiff is now conscious (1/23).
The guardroom has a table surrounded by a few rickety chairs, along with a pair of moldy but serviceable cots. The skeleton, its flames now flickering out, carried a simple handaxe. There is a winch affixed to the north wall. It would seem to raise and lower the portcullis that allows entrance into the area to the north; the portcullis is currently raised.
Ismene destroys the skeleton.
Marill has no ability to get into melee combat. unfortunately.
Marill's starknife does minimal damage. Quinn misses. Ismene's holy water splashes the skeleton.
The flaming skeleton chops at Tiff.
Tiff gets hit again, just as Theodore requested. The handaxe cuts deep into her neck and she falls, bleeding. This guy might not have been the Lopper, but he is auditioning to take over the role. The skeleton steps over her fallen form and claws at Quinn, hitting again.
Round 3
Round 4
Tiff's jaws crunch through flaming bones, her magic protecting her against the heat.
Marill, Ismene, and Quinn are up!
Marill begins Inspire Courage +1. The headless skeleton continues to attack Tiff.
Both attacks miss!
Round 2
Round 3
Theodore blesses Quinn's sword, which strikes true.
The flaming skeleton staggers, but keeps attacking.
Marill is up!
Marill delays. The headless skeleton advances, stumbling around a bit, and swings its handaxe at Tiff. While she is protected from the fire damage, it is still a nasty cut.
Round 1
Round 2
Earlier, when Tiff tried to cast Resist Energy, she was unable to complete the spell.
Theodore:
You hadn't moved on the map so I moved you. But none of that Stride stuff, this is PF1! You see a burning headless skeleton. By its movements you can tell it is a Skeletal Champion, a more powerful form of skeleton that retains the intelligence and abilities that it had in life. It carries a handaxe and is, as noted, on fire. Theodore moves up, identifies the enemy, and readies to cast his spell on Quinn's weapon as soon as the cavalier moves adjacent. Marill is up!
Tiff: Within the room, moving to attack, is a burning headless skeleton. By its movements you can tell it is a Skeletal Champion, a more powerful form of skeleton that retains the intelligence and abilities that it had in life. It carries a handaxe and is, as noted, on fire.
The Oubliette lies to the north. The party moves to inspect. Off the hall, the door to a guard room lies slightly ajar. As you approach, you hear a rattling and crackling sound from within the guard room. You smell something burning, and see a flicker of flames casting odd shadows through the gap in the door. Something lurches in the room.
Initiative:
Round 1
The skeletons are quickly destroyed. While Tiff does not have Prestidigitation handy, Marill does. Not for the sake of cleaning off Theodore's clothes (although he may do that), but for removing the soot from the brass nameplates above the corridors. To the north lies “The Oubliette.”
Where to?
Ismene's bomb scores a direct hit and destroys the undead. Nothing troubles you as Marill climbs down the rope and retrieves his starknife. The water is stagnant, and sooty once stirred up. But it poses no immediate danger other than to Theodore's wardrobe. Emerging from the pool, you search the cavern. There is nothing to be found other than a large chamber to the west. Four dark hallways exit from this large empty chamber, each striking out in one of the four directions of the compass, and each decorated with a soot-caked brass nameplate affixed to the ceiling just above the entrance. A rubble-choked stairway leads up in the middle of the room, while eight skeletons dressed in scorched prisoners’ robes lie on the ground. You know that the stairs would have once led to the main level, but were filled by debris from a deadfall. The eight skeletons are crowded around the clogged remains of the stairs. They are not quite animated, but start to rattle.
Marill misses; Ismene delays. The sort-of-ghost mindlessly flails at Quinn, not even realizing that its Horrifying Ooze has failed to frighten him.
The creature is solid enough that Quinn is able to block its slam with his shield. Party up! Enemy is AC 12, HP 9, DR 5/slashing.
Quinn misses.
Ismene and Marill can act! Ismene is down below, Marill is up top (but can see the undead; let's say it has cover against him).
One spectral being glides over the water towards Quinn and is immediately cut down by the Ghost Rider's sword. The other, undaunted, moves forward and strikes at him, leaving a gash in his shoulder.
It leaves behind an ectoplasmic ooze that starts seeping into the wound. A lesser mortal might be struck by fear from this attack, but not Quinn. the effect, if you are curious:
Horrifying Ooze (Su): Any creature that is struck by an ectoplasmic creature’s slam attack must make a Will save with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the ectoplasmic creature’s Hit Dice or become shaken for 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based. Everybody up!
Quinn stores his ghostly horse in the deep recesses of his soul, then climbs down the rope. He is now immune to This cavernous chamber may have once been an underground cellblock, but it has long since collapsed. The crumbled walls are thick with mold and stained with soot, and heaps of fallen stones and charred wooden beams line the area. Water drips and seeps along the walls, collecting in a dark, murky pool in the middle of the room. To the north, the twisted remains of a wood and iron lift lie in a heap in a shallow portion of the pool. A jagged hole in the roof yawns twenty feet above this ruin. To the west, a partially blocked opening seems to open up after several feet into a dark but stable tunnel. The dark, murky pool is right below the hole in the ceiling, so that is where Quinn finds himself. It is about knee-deep. As soon as Quinn's feet touch the bottom of the pool, the room fills with a cacophonous roar of screams and howls. The surface of the pool starts rippling, as if something is stirring underwater. Two semi-ghostly figures burst from the water! Only Quinn can see them at present because of their location, and they greatly remind him of his horse Luna. They start gliding over the surface of the pool towards him, rage in their ghostly eyes. Initiative:
Round 1
Climbing is at quarter speed, so with a 30' double move you can get 15' down. Accelerated climbing is twice as fast, but DC 10 in this case. Jumping is an option, though the water is not deep enough to mitigate the falling damage.
Ismene hits, destroying two of the undead! The last one moves to attack her.
Ismene cracks the skull hard with her spiked gauntlet as it moves in. It then tries to give her a fiery headbutt, missing. The party is able to finish the remaining skull off in short order.
This room was where the fire that doomed Harrowstone began. The
You discern that the jagged, soot-caked hole in the floor was once the location of the lift that connected the two floors. It’s a 20-foot drop to the floor below. How do you propose to descend?
---
Three flaming skulls rise up to attack! Initiative:
These are Tiny undead, if that makes any difference for your tactics. And, obviously, they are on fire. Round 1
Do you want to perhaps heal up Theodore with the Rod of Healing or other resources before proceeding?
The rest of the party moves out of the room. The fiery furnace lashes tongues of flame at Quinn, but they don't seem to affect him. The metal of the furnace creaks, groans, and roars, venting its frustration at its inability to incinerate this invasive mortal. At first Quinn sees nothing. But there is no hurry. So he crawls into the furnace and digs around, sifting through the ashes with his hands. After a couple of minutes, Quinn emerges, covered in ashes and soot, carrying a number of small objects. He brings to Theodore part of a skull, three ribs, and six finger bones. He is quite certain he has found everything of notable size. Theodore examines the bones, safely out of the fiery furnace's reach. As inanimate objects, they shouldn't be affected by the heat of the furnace (since it a haunt and its fire is a fear effect), and yet they feel hot to the touch. They must have some spiritual energy remaining in them. Theodore now realizes the step that must be taken to expunge the haunt - the bones must be quenched in a large body of water, such as the lake that is just past the crumbled eastern wall of the furnace room. Quinn hurls the bones into the lake. Old Ember Maw, the furnace of Harrowstone, goes silent.
Theodore hurts the haunt, so it decides to hurt him back. The 'face' of the furnace seems to sneer, and a fiery tongue lashes out at the cleric.
Theodore:
You surmise that somebody's remains are in this furnace, and that permanently destroying the haunt will require digging them out from the ashes in the furnace. Quinn:
You can see the flame, and the leering furnace face, but you don't feel any heat. You are quite sure that you and Luna would be unaffected by this haunt. Everybody up!
Ismene's bomb has no effect. Theodore is up!
--- Furnace Room A huge stone furnace dominates this room. The metalwork of the furnace seems to form a face, with a cavernous gaping maw. An ancient fire has burned away the entire east wall the room, providing a panoramic, if eerie, view of the lake beyond. That same lake has gradually expanded into the room, flooding its eastern half. Perception:
Everyone except Tiff:
You notice a growing stink of burning flesh. The 'face' of the furnace begins to animate, and embers start to glow inside the 'mouth'. Initiative:
Knowledge (Religion):
All of you recognize this as a haunt manifesting (though Tiff is slow to react).
Ismene, Marill, Theodore:
You suspect that cold damage will affect this haunt, in addition to positive energy and holy water. Surprise!
There is a door in the northeast of the Infirmary (the room you are in).
Tiff sees that Ismene's bomb has finished off the Poltergeist. The spectral undead fades away and is no longer visible even to Tiff. A search of this cluttered room reveals a number of valuable objects:
Tiff:
You see the undead reel in pain from Theodore's channel. Rattling scalpels indicate that the Poltergeist is still up, and getting ready to attack.
The Poltergeist is hurt by Tiff's spell, but remains a threat. It decides to scare off the wizard's allies. Tiff sees the spectral figure streak towards the group and burst into view for a second, presenting a terrifying visage. It then vanishes from view. Tiff is immune, because she can see invisible creatures (I guess it's a jump scare that requires the sudden appearance to work).
The rest of you have the benefit of being close to Quinn... Will saves with Aura of Courage:
Nobody is Frightened. It is invisible, but you can attack the square where you last saw it. Party up! Round 1
Round 2
Initiative:
Round 1
Tiff throws open the door, spots the invisible Poltergeist, and gets the drop on it! Tiff may act! Nobody else sees it (yet).
Deciding that you have had enough fun with the Spirit Planchette for one day, you move to deal with the Poltergeist.
Remembering that the Poltergeist is both invisible and incorporeal, what is your plan?
Just wanted to make sure that everyone remembered this: we are using Automatic Bonus Progression at level +1. So you should have what 4th-level characters normally get under ABP:
As Ismene works the spirit planchette over the board, a faint din of screams echoes in her ears, then starts growing louder and louder. They're here! They've got Tiff! She looks over, and the wizard's formerly vacant expression has been replaced by one of ravenous hunger and rage! Ismene reaches for the axe, to strike the possessed Tiff, when she shakes her head and the screams disappear. Tiff is normal (well, normal for her, anyway).
The Spirit Planchette then jerks around quickly under Ismene's hand, spelling out A-X-E
Mold has destroyed much of the book's contents, but the following spells remain legible:
Theodore learns nothing about the handaxe. With the holy symbols, he can definitively say that there is no spiritual connection present. They most likely had a connection to Father Charlatan, but with the destruction of his spirit, they are simply holy symbols. The spellbook:
Theodore:
Your name is scrawled in blood in the margins of the book. THEODORE SAMUEL WALDEN CARTER. Theodore can feel that the Splatter Man was dealt a terrible blow to his morale and sanity by the loss of this spellbook. It is most definitely haunted or cursed, but could also be used as a weapon against the spirit. In fact, Theodore sees how it could be so used. By ripping out and destroying the remaining intact pages while in the spirit's presence, you could further erode his morale and damage him. Theodore also senses that whoever carries this book will take on some of the Splatter Man's fears, in particular fears of losing spellcasting ability. Finally, the book will over time cause the possessor to see their name partially spelled blood in various locations. This is unnerving and can increase paranoia. He can tell nothing about the smith's hammer, nor the flute.
Marill:
You don't see Tiff's name in the margins. You see your name, written in blood. Quinn: You don't see Tiff's name in the margins. You see your name, written in blood.
Does anyone else look in the book when Tiff holds it up? Please chime in here one way or the other. |